Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups

DIANNE LONGLEY is a print artist who produces artist books and folios as well as intaglio and relief prints. Her work combines new and traditional technologies. She is a highly regarded Australian artist who has exhibited internationally and has won numerous awards and commissions. As well as working for exhibitions, Longley also works on collaborative public artworks, and has worked as an artist in residence in studios and schools. She currently lectures in printmaking, visual language and digital imaging at Adelaide Central School of Art, SA, Australia.

Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups is her first set of playing cards and was exhibited at the Robert Steele Gallery in Adelaide in 1999. It has been purchased by the National Library of Australia.

Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups is a boxed set of playing cards by Dianne Longley

Above: The box is 21.5 x 16 x 4 cm and contains the four suits of cards, a booklet which describes the card suits and why each one was chosen, and also includes an essay on the origins of playing cards, and a silk playing card table cover (not shown).

About Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups

Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups is a personal set of playing cards incorporating digital technologies. When I did research for my MA thesis The Book, The Print, The Artist, and The Digital Era I found a lot of correlation between the history of book printing and playing cards. As an artist who has produced a range of artist books I was inspired by the research to create a set of playing cards with an accompanying booklet.

Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups represents aspects of my private world. The cards incorporate digital photos, drawn images and found images collaged together in Adobe Photoshop.

The King, Queen, Jack and Joker in Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups

The Twos in Cats, Cakes, Clothes and Cups

DIANNE LONGLEY has a website which features information about her printmaking studio and a book she published in 1998 called Printmaking with Photopolymer Plates, an introductory guide to creating prints using photopolymer plates (solarplates). Photopolymer printmaking is an important new development and gives artists a greater range of print techniques to be explored.

Dianne's email address is prints@ozemail.com.au